Covid-19 pandemic created one new billionaire every 30 hours, finds Oxfam's 'Profiting from Pain' report

New Delhi: Releasing a report titled 'Profiting from Pain', Oxfam International on Monday (May 23, 2022) said that the Covid-19 pandemic has seen one new billionaire emerging every 30 hours, while nearly one million people could be pushed into extreme poverty every 33 hours this year.

As the rich and powerful from across the globe gathered in the Swiss town of Davos for the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2022, Executive Director of Oxfam International Gabriela Bucher said that the decades of progress on extreme poverty are "now in reverse" and millions of people are facing "impossible rises" in the cost of simply staying alive.

"Billionaires are arriving in Davos to celebrate an incredible surge in their fortunes. The pandemic and now the steep increases in food and energy prices have simply put, been a bonanza for them. Meanwhile, decades of progress on extreme poverty are now in reverse and millions of people are facing impossible rises in the cost of simply staying alive," said Gabriela Bucher, Executive Director of Oxfam International.

The report released by the Nairobi-based charity also found that the number of billionaires had risen by 573 to just under 2,700 from 2020. Their cumulative wealth had risen by nearly $3.8 trillion to $12.7 trillion, the report said, analysing data from Forbes. 

"Those in the food and energy sector enjoyed a windfall in revenues from soaring commodity prices," it added.

Billionaires’ wealth rose more during Covid-19 than in 23 years

The report also stated that billionaires’ wealth has risen more in the first 24 months of Covid-19 than in 23 years combined. Oxfam also claimed that the total wealth of the world’s billionaires is now equivalent to 13.9 percent of global GDP, which is a three-fold increase (up from 4.4 percent) in 2000.

"Billionaires’ fortunes have not increased because they are now smarter or working harder. Workers are working harder, for less pay, and in worse conditions. The super-rich have rigged the system with impunity for decades and they are now reaping the benefits. They have seized a shocking amount of the world’s wealth as a result of privatization and monopolies, gutting regulation and workers’ rights while stashing their cash in tax havens — all with the complicity of governments," Bucher said. 

For every one billionaire minted since the pandemic began, 1M more people could be pushed into extreme poverty in 2022. While the world is reeling from multiple crises, the world’s wealthiest are unashamedly #ProfitingFromPain of ordinary peopleMorehttps://t.co/47FyVW5b0U pic.twitter.com/rRlKAFv1Nj — Oxfam International (@Oxfam) May 23, 2022

"Meanwhile, millions of others are skipping meals, turning off the heating, falling behind on bills and wondering what they can possibly do next to survive. Across East Africa, one person is likely dying every minute from hunger. This grotesque inequality is breaking the bonds that hold us together as humanity. It is divisive, corrosive and dangerous. This is inequality that literally kills," the Executive Director of Oxfam International added.

World's ten richest own more wealth than bottom 40%

Oxfam said that today, 2,668 billionaires — 573 more than in 2020 — own $12.7 trillion, an increase of $3.78 trillion. The report also said that the world’s ten richest men own more wealth than the bottom 40 percent of humanity, 3.1 billion people.

"The richest 20 billionaires are worth more than the entire GDP of Sub-Saharan Africa," the report added.

"A worker in the bottom 50 percent would have to work for 112 years to earn what a person in the top 1 percent gets in a single year," the authors of the report said.

Covid-19 pandemic created 40 new pharma billionaires

The Covid-19 pandemic has also created 40 new pharma billionaires, Oxfam said. It added that the pharmaceutical corporations like Moderna and Pfizer are making $1,000 profit every second just from their "monopoly control" of the vaccines against Covid-19.

"They are charging governments up to 24 times more than the potential cost of generic production. 87 percent of people in low-income countries have still not been fully vaccinated," Oxfam stated.

Inequality has reached new levels

The combination of coronavirus outbreaks, rising inequality, and rising food prices could push as many as 263 million people into extreme poverty in 2022, Oxfam said.

#Billionaires have much to celebrate. During the pandemic their wealth has increased. As the cost of essential goods rises faster than it has in decades, billionaires in food & energy are increasing their fortunes by $1B every 2 days. #ProfitingFromPain: https://t.co/ts8rDMIkvF pic.twitter.com/o78YmLdhtf — Oxfam International (@Oxfam) May 23, 2022

"Inequality, already extreme before Covid-19, has reached new levels," it added.

According to the World Bank, the extremely poor are those living on less than $1.90 a day.

Food prices, which have already been pushing higher during the pandemic due to Covid-19 disruptions and weather woes, took another jump higher when the Russia-Ukraine war roiled supplies of grains and oils.

"The single most urgent and structural action that governments must take now is to implement highly progressive taxation measures that in turn must be used to invest in powerful and proven measures that reduce inequality, such as universal social protection and universal healthcare," the report said.

(With agency inputs)